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Non-Inhospitality

By Karl Keating

This Rock Volume 17, Number 2   February 2006     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   Letters   Why Doesn't the Pope Do Something about "Bad" Bishops? By Fr. Robert Johansen   Hospitality Is Biblical – and It's Not Optional By Emily Cook   My Big Fat Greek Welcome   My Hospitality Conversion By Ruth D. Lasseter   New World Hospitality   Old World Hospitality   Philosophy 101 Taught by Pope John Paul II By Christopher Kaczor   They Just Won't Go Away By Kenneth D. Whitehead   What Is Heresy?   More Ancient Heresies   Damascus Road The Trentecostal Reversion By Pete Vere   By the Book Purgation Station By Jim Blackburn   Truth Be Told Providence Present in History By Matthew Bunson   Up a Notch Pope Pius XVI and Ecumenism By Amy Barragree   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Subscribe    Permissions

Two of this issue’s feature articles deal with hospitality, and in "Reasons for Hope" Cherie Peacock reflects on how hospitality played a role in the growth of her faith. Let me take a whack at the topic, but from a different angle. I want to write not about giving hospitality but about refraining from inhospitality.

My natural tendency—it may be yours too—is to avoid face-to-face confrontations, especially if I suspect the episodes will be unpleasant. For many years this extended to missionaries at the door. I did what I could to avoid speaking with them. Sometimes I would ignore their knocks and pretend I was not home. At other times I would open the door and tell them I was too busy to talk. When that failed, I tried to scare them away by explaining that I was a "Romanist" who was impervious to non-Catholic ideas.

Although I never slammed the door in missionaries’ faces, neither did I display a notably hospitable attitude. Encounters with proponents of other religions were unpleasant, so I tried not to have such encounters, but sometimes I was unsuccessful in shooing away folks who were trying to "save" me.

One day I found myself speaking on the doorstep with a Seventh-day Adventist. When I tried to discourage him by saying I was a Catholic, he reached into his valise and pulled out several Catholic editions of the Bible. "Which shall we use?" he asked. "Uh, the blue one," I replied. And then we had at it.

For several minutes I was especially unhappy. I knew his charges against the Church and his interpretations of Scripture were wrong, but I found myself unable to formulate satisfying rejoinders. Then he cited a verse I knew, Matthew 16:18: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." Fortuitously, only days before I had read up on this passage.

It was my turn to take the offensive. I went into a lengthy discussion of points I later incorporated into Catholicism and Fundamentalism. I had an answer for every claim he made, and I explained the Catholic position in a positive and, I thought, compelling way. I knew I was having the better of the argument, and he knew it too, so at length he excused himself and went to ply his wares down the block.

I cannot say what he came away with from our discussion, but I came away with a newfound sense of confidence. For the first time I had been able to defend the faith successfully. If I did it once, I could do it again. If I could learn to defend the Church on one doctrine, I could learn to defend the Church on ten—or a hundred.

After that I no longer worried about dodging missionaries when they came to my door. Quite the opposite. I became the model of hospitality: "Come in and sit down. What can I get you—a soda, maybe a slice of cake? Here they are. . . . Now, let’s open the Bible, and let me give you the real scoop about the Christian faith."